His arms tightened around her. “I will abide here for the time being. Han-nah-a-lah appears to be a hub of demon activity. It is most curious. Ansgar and I agree the situation warrants further investigation.”
“Han-nah-a-lah?”
“Is that not what this hamlet is called?” Brand slipped another morsel of bread into her mouth. He opened the thermos and poured green tea into the top, then held the cup to her lips. “It was the name on the marker at the outskirts of this place.”
Addy swallowed a sip of the sweetened tea. “Are you talking about that old sign at the south end of town? I’m surprised you could read it. Hannah, Alabama, is what it says, but half the letters are gone. The city council has been talking about replacing it for years.”
“To the Dalvahni, Han-nah-a-lah means the end of all things. Perhaps that is why Ansgar and I—like the demons, it would seem—have been drawn here, to fight the final battle.”
“Hannah a hotbed of supernatural woo-woo? You’ve got to be kidding. No self-respecting demon would be caught undead here. Heck, we’re so podunk we don’t even have a Burger Doodle.”
“Demons find this Burger Doodle attractive?”
“Nah, if I had to guess, I’d say they’re more into soul food.” She clapped her hands over her mouth. “Oh, God, I made a pun. Slap me.”
“You are giddy from the power. It is natural. Now that you have taken in nourishment and found sexual release the symptoms should subside.”
Sexual release? The blood rushed to Addy’s face. Oh, no, he did not say that out loud. And so matter-of-factly, too. Pardon me, milady, but you should feel a whole lot better now that I’ve shoved my hand down your panties and made you sing like the fat lady. How embarrassing. But, she did feel better now that she’d eaten and . . . uh . . . you know. She closed her eyes. Oh, God, maybe the floor would open up and swallow her whole.
“The djegrali dealt you a mortal blow,” Brand continued. “You would have died had I not saved you. In doing so, we merged and you received some of my powers. That is how you banished Ansgar and me beyond your settlement borders, and gave that disagreeable female spots on her rump.”
Her eyes flew open. “You think I teleported you and Blondy out of town and gave Meredith pizza butt?” She jumped to her feet. “That’s mental. Look, bub, I’ve had a lot to deal with since last night, and your crazy whacked-out ideas aren’t helping. Creepy dementors and a new hairdo, and a talking dog and a ten-foot albino deer, not to mention sexy warrior dudes invading my house—”
“Dudes, this is a plural term, is it not?” Brand scowled. “Do you find Ansgar sexually attractive?”
“He’s easy on the eyes, I’ll give him that. But, I wouldn’t let him put his hand down my pants, if that’s what you mean.”
Whoops, she did it again. Opened her big, fat mouth and said what she was thinking. Talk about diarrhea of the mouth. She had a terminal case of it.
Brand jerked her back onto his lap. “That is exactly what I mean. He is not to touch you. This I cannot allow.”
Whew, bossy and possessive. “Don’t worry, he’s not my type. But I don’t think you have anything to worry about on that score. I’m pretty sure he’s into Evie, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“I did not notice. You are the only one I see when I am in your presence.” He kissed the vee of exposed skin at the top of her silk blouse and nuzzled her neck. “And when we are apart as well.” He moved his lips to the sensitive spot beneath her ear. “I did not like it today when you sent me away. Suppose the djegrali returned to harm you? That is why I will accompany you to this sepulchral service Mistress Evie told me about.”
“Sepulchral service?” Addy leaped up and flung open the supply room door. “The Farris funeral! I should have been there twenty minutes ago. I am soooo late!”
“Adara wait, I must accompany you.”
She whirled back around. “That’s sweet, Brand, but there is no way I’m taking Conan the Barbarian to the Farris funeral. I’ll be fine. I’d rather face a hundred demons any day than my mother in one of her snits. And she’ll be headed straight for Snitsville if I don’t get over there pronto.”
She rushed into the front room of the store. “Evie, be a doll and mind things for me, will you? I gotta get over to the body shop.”
Snatching up a standing basket of mums, snapdragons, and lilies, she bolted out the front door and down the street in the direction of Corwin’s Serenity Chapel and Mortuary.
The storage room door slammed open and the dark-haired hunk Addy had introduced as Brand strode out. Evie eyed him uncertainly. On the surface he looked calm enough, but he radiated suppressed emotion and a raw, animal magnetism that screamed danger. This was not a man you wanted to mess with. She sure hoped she wasn’t to blame for his bad mood. She did a quick mental recount. Nope, wasn’t her. Addy must have done something to tick him off. Addy sometimes had that effect on people.
He confirmed her suspicion when he bellowed, “Adara Jean, come back here.”
His voice rattled the decorative plates and pictures on the wall, but Evie could have told him he was wasting his energy. Addy was long gone. She shot out the door and past the plate glass display window so fast it made Evie blink. Cheese and crackers, it was like Addy was on speed or something. Drugs; that was it. Addy was on drugs. No other explanation for her best friend leaving her alone with two strangers. Two beautiful male strangers. Addy knew she suffered from shyness, Evie thought indignantly, especially around men. Men in general made her nervous, and good-looking men gave her the willies. And these two specimens of masculine magnificence shot way past good-looking and into the supernaturally handsome zone. One look at these guys, and the male underwear models of the world would strangle themselves with their own shorts. They were intergalactically gorgeous, especially the blond guy. Ansgar, that was his name. Evie slid him a cautious glance and looked away again. Cripes, he was so gorgeous he glowed.
And he was looking right at her.
Brand growled—he growled!—and turned to glare at Evie. She shrank back from the look in his eyes, a feral gleam like a tiger on the prowl. Or at least that’s the gleam she imagined a prowling tiger’s eyes might have. She’d never seen a tiger, thank God, except on the National Geographic channel.
“Where did she go?” he demanded.
Evie risked another quick peek at Ansgar. He still watched her, his arms crossed on his broad chest, with an unblinking scrutiny that made her self-conscious. Make that super self-conscious, since plain old ordinary run-of-the-mill self-conscious was normal for her.
Brand growled again, and she stuttered, “T-to the funeral home.”
“In Snitsville?”
Evie gaped at him. “Huh?”
For a moment, he looked like his head might explode. “Addy said her mother might be traveling to some place called Snitsville. I must follow Addy there, if that is her destination.”
Maybe this guy was from outer space. “Addy’s mother lives in Snitsville,” she said. “It’s not a place, it’s an expression. It means she stays upset about something or other all the time.”
The glittering eyes narrowed. “I see. You are most helpful. Perhaps you also have information about Conan the Barbarian.”
Evie was knocked straight back to huh. “Conan?”
“Who is he, and what is he to Addy?”
“Conan?”
“Conan.”
Evie struggled to keep up. “I’m sorry,